A cool company needs cool engineers

The video is about an interview with Xiaomi’s engineers. Maybe you are still unfamiliar with some terms in the short film. Don’t worry, we’ve prepared a glossary for you.

Xiaomi Glossary

Xiaomi: In Chinese, Xiaomi means “millet”. It just so happened that one day, co-founder Alee’s father cooked millet porridge for the team and that’s how our company found its name— millet is affordable and nutritious, and Xiaomi is a name which is warm, soothing, familiar and easy to recall in China. “When I went to the trademark registration, someone asked me whether we are an innovative agricultural technology company,” Xiaomi’s founder and CEO Lei Jun recalled.

Xiaomi co-founders: Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by a team of brilliant men in their 30s or early 40s, older than the average startup founders’ age. That’s because they already have years of experience under their belt, given that some have founded other successful companies, or were recognized as truly talented at global technology companies like Google, Microsoft, Motorola and others.

Lei Zong: It’s how Xiaomi staff and Mi fans refer to Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s co-founder, chairman, and CEO. “Zong” in Chinese refers to boss or leader. It is normally used after a person’s surname, as in the case of Lei Jun, but it can also used after a given name. Lei Jun was part of the founding team of Kingsoft in 1992 and became CEO in 1998. After Kingsoft successfully completed their IPO, Lei Jun stepped down from his position and became Vice Chairman at Kingsoft. In the early 2000’s, he invested in many successful start-up companies like YY, UC and Vancl as an angel investor, and on April 6, 2010, he founded Xiaomi, with the commitment to making truly customized Android smartphones.

Chuan Sir: A nickname for Wang Chuan, the director for Internet TV related products such as Mi TV and Mi Box. He founded Thunder Stone Technology Ltd. in 1997 and led the company to be the largest audio-visual entertainment equipment supplier in China. In 2010, Wang Chuan founded Beijing Duokan Technology Co., Ltd where he currently serves as the CEO. He also helped co-found Xiaomi and in 2012 joined Xiaomi as a co-founder and vice President.

KK: This is the nickname for Wong Jiangji, who co-founded Xiaomi and leads the Mi Wi-Fi and Mi Cloud teams. Born in Hong Kong, he graduated from Purdue University and worked for Microsoft from 1996 to 2010. He’s a brilliant man and a real workaholic.

Alee: This is the nickname for Li Wanqiang, who leads the marketing team. He co-founded Xiaomi in 2010 and previously led MIUI and the Mi.com e-commerce platform. A significant contributor to both hardware and software design, he is also the creative mind behind popular Internet keywords related to Xiaomi like “F-code”, “Mi Fan Festival” and more. Alee is also a photography enthusiast. His book The Sense of Participation which was published in 2014 had stories on Xiaomi’s marketing success.

Brother De: This is the nickname for Liu De, who leads Xiaomi’s industrial design and Ecosystem development programs. He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design located in California, USA, where he is one of only 20 Chinese students to receive a diploma during the institution’s 80-year history. He returned to China to establish the Industrial Design Department at Beijing University of Technology, where he served as the department’s dean.

Hong Feng: Hong Feng leads the MIUI division at Xiaomi. He received a Master’s Degree in Computer Science in Purdue University. From 2001 to 2005 he worked at Siebel and then joined Google as Senior Software Engineer in 2006. While at Google Headquarters, he oversaw Google Calendar, Google Maps and Google 3D Street View. From 2006 to 2010, he worked as Senior Product Manager of Google China and led the Google China team to develop a series of localized products like Google Music and Google Pinyin Input.

Bin Zong: The nickname refers to Lin Bin, who is known for being very affable. In 1995, he joined Microsoft, where he worked as Lead Project Engineer, Senior Development Manager of MSRA, and Engineering Director of MSRA. Bin also contributed to the R&D of Microsoft products, including Windows Vista and IE 8. In 2006, he joined Google as the Vice President of the Google China Institute of Engineering and the Engineering Director of Google Global. He was in charge of building and managing Google China’s Mobile Search and the Android App Localization teams.

The 5th Day:The happiest day of the month as Xiaomi employees get their salary on the 5th day every month.

Hurhurhur: Although this is an expression for laughter, it usually shows scorn, reluctance, and indifference. It is also used to end an unhappy conversation. This word was chosen by Chinese netizens as “the most hurtful Internet term” in 2013.

Are you OK: Lei Jun said “Are You OK” during his speech at a press conference in India in 2015. He spoke in English, and had a strong, but some might say funny, accent from his hometown. A netizen then edited the press conference video to make a hilarious English song called “Are you OK” and uploaded it to a video website. It soon went viral in China. This hilarious song has had over 5 million views and over 50,000 comments after its original post.

Ma La Tang: It is a kind of spicy hotpot. Almost anything can be put into Ma La Tang. Some people translate it as “Hot Hot Hot”.

Pork trotters: Pig trotters can be cooked in a variety of ways, but in all cases, they require slow cooking until the meat falls off the bone. The food is said to be good for skin, because it contains rich collagen.

Duck necks: A traditional and popular food that originated from Wuhan, the capital city of central China’s Hubei province, Lei Jun’s hometown. Normally duck neck is cooked with chilli and best enjoyed with an ice cold beer.